Deep Time at the Edinburgh International Festival

Mr hazelh, Jon, Luisa and I attended the opening event of the Edinburgh International Festival this evening. Entitled Deep time, the performance   comprised a mix of animation, lighting and music to project an interpretation of the 350 million years of Edinburgh’s history on the castle and its ramparts. My blip is from the final scene of the show. I love the simplicity of the message (particularly in light of the current political climate).

The official video of the event has already been posted on YouTube. My favourite segments come when (1) dinosaur remains transform into fossils (at 9 minutes), (2) it looks like the castle ramparts are collapsing (at 12 minutes 15 seconds), and (3) an image of the castle sweeps in to be superimposed on the actual castle (18 minutes 29 seconds). I think that I spotted a couple of friends in faces projected from 17 minutes 40 onwards: is that ArcLight at 18 minutes 22? Although the video doesn't really convey the excitement of being outdoors with a crowd of thousands to see the spectacle live, it's well worth watching to get a sense of it all.

Earlier in the day we were up at the Gilded Balloon (again) to see Mervyn Stutter's lunchtime show during which seven acts featured. Every single extract was excellent and we hope to find time to see some on their entirety before the month is out. The full schedule of Mervyn's show included snippets of the following shows:

Croft and Pearce are not themselves - sharp and witty sketches by two (female) comedians
Made up - drama about modern night life culture
Oliver Reed wild thing - one man show about Oliver Reed
Perhaps hope - astonishing acrobatics
The remains of Tom Lehrer - Lehrer with updated lyrics
Marcel Lucont's whine list - arrogant French stand-up
Songs on film - clever reinterpretations of music from the movies

Exercise today: walking (20,240 steps).